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Evelyn Grey
= Bio Data = = Overview = Evelyn was born to Col. James and Lily Grey on March the 15th 1905 in their country estate, Foxfield, in the county of Hampshire south of London. Foxfield and its grounds belong to Lily's family; remnants of a once prominent title that now has little more than a good name behind a large number of debts. The grace of Lily's name and lineage allowed for loans to keep the house going, as well as funding for the various archeological adventures the Colonel went on throughout his youth and later in his retired years. He's an educated man and connoisseur of the past; he would sometimes spend months away on various excursions to seek out what he called “The true origins of man”. Despite his frequent absense from home, Evelyn has a close relationship with her father. While he was away she would correspond with him regularly, learning about the far-off places he traveled and the discoveries that he was privy to. When he was home, she would sneak down to his study when everyone thought her asleep and hide beneath his large mahogany desk to listen to the men-folk talk while they drank brandy and smoked cigars after dinner. This was of course well known by her father, who, after excusing his guests for the evening, would come back into the study to find her curled up and he would carry her back to her bed. On occasion she would wake and share some of her thoughts on the matters discussed. He would chuckle, kiss her on the head, tuck her in and say “You should have been a boy my dear, you should have been a boy.” 1914 saw Evelyn's father away to war like all other able-bodied men, where he earned his rank as Colonel in Her Majesties Armed Forces. He was wounded in battle in 1916, and awarded a slew of metals for services above and beyond the call of duty and then retired. The war changed him in many ways and his already estranged relationship with Lily grew to a vast chasm, they simply couldn't see eye-to-eye on anything especially where Evelyn was concerned. Being a proper British family, however, this was hardly common knowledge except of course to Evelyn and the small staff of servants kept on board to tend to the house. As if to spite his wife directly, the Col. permitted Evelyn to join in the after-dinner conversations in his study. She spent hours with her father and his companions drinking up all the knowledge she could from current affairs to the intricacies of ancient languages and the anthropological evolution of man. Her inclusion was met with good humor by her father's companions, and even amazement when she spoke of her opinions and how passionately she could argue them. Her mother, Lily, was very much a woman of the past and frowned upon filling their daughter's head with fantastical ideals of being an educated woman – this attitude did nothing but distance them even further. When pressed to ask, Evelyn will say that she learned how to look like a woman from her mother, but learned how to be a free-thinking modern woman from her father. Evelyn suffered through etiquette school at her mother's request, but continued to develop her love for the history of man and the development of language. It never ceased to amaze her that the one thing that separated them from all other creatures of the world was the ability to communicate and express their thoughts through verbal interaction. This obsession was to lead her to an acceptance at Cambridge University in 1924; a time when woman attending college was on the rise thanks to the Woman's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Evelyn's mother of course disapproved. She had hoped etiquette school would have taught Evelyn the necessity of gaining a husband, but this was to no avail. However, with her father away on a dig in Egypt, Evelyn was faced with the necessity of appeasing her mother’s wishes yet again; she agreed to marry so long as she could continue her education at Cambridge. Jullian Dewhurst is a child-hood friend of Evelyn's. A push over to say the least and with sexual appetites that would have made her mother die of heart attack; he secretly preferred his own gender to that of the opposite sex. In their marriage Evelyn and Jullian both benefitted; Evelyn got her wish to go to university, and Jullian was able to continue to masquerade his lifestyle in the eyes of his family. They had a small but beautiful wedding – all organized by Evelyn's mother of course – then moved up to Cambridge where they could live out their dreams. Evelyn, Julian and his partner John lived in their flat on the upper end in as close to marital bliss as they ever would be, at least until Jullian came out to his family and then committed duel suicide with John two years later. The death was not shocking, the gambling debts Jullian had left her with, however, were crippling. Evelyn was forced to return home to Foxfield, her education postponed indefinitely. True devastation hit in 1928 when her father went missing while out on a dig in Crete. Evelyn begged her mother to let her go look for her father, but was met with absolute refusal. The rumors started to spread rapidly after that and word of their ever-mounting debt could no longer be concealed. Evelyn was faced with the cold hard fact that her world would come tumbling down around her and very rapidly if she did not soon find a solution to their economical well being. With that in mind she heard wind of an expedition to the Amazon. Dangerous to say the least, she had heard much before about the previous excursions there in search of a claimed lost civilization never yet heard of before. The pay was more than enough to cover her family’s debts and complete her programme at Cambridge. So, regardless of her mother's pleas to not go, Evelyn has packed up and headed for New York to make a very important meeting at Miskatonic University to sign on. Of course, with the lure of having the chance to work with some of the people whom had been with her father when he'd disappeared it almost goes without saying that she has ulterior motives of discovering just what happened in Crete. Category:PCs